Sierra Club

The Sierra Club, considered a Big Green environmental group member, was founded by on May 28, 1892 by John Muir and other supporters. It is the oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization in the United States. The Sierra club has 1.3 million members. See also Sierra Club Foundation.

Overview
According to their mission statement, the Sierra Club endeavors to:


 * Explore, enjoy and protect the wild places of the earth.
 * Practice and promote the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources.
 * Educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment.
 * Use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.

Clorox & "Green Works"
In January 2008, the Sierra Club announced a deal with Clorox whereby the company could "use the Sierra Club's name and logo to market a new line of non-chlorinated cleaning products called 'Green Works.' In return, Clorox Company will pay Sierra Club an undisclosed fee, based partly on product sales," reported Peter Montague. Sierra Club's director of Licensing & Cause-Related Marketing, Johanna O'Kelley, has said "the amount of money involved is 'substantial.'" Sierra executive director Carl Pope has written that "our focus was on consumers who otherwise would not migrate to a safer product because they wouldn't be sure it wasn't green scamming."

The tension within the Sierra Club came to a head in late March 2008, when, in an unprecedented move, the "Sierra Club's national board voted March 25 to remove the leaders of the Club's 35,000-member Florida chapter, and to suspend the Chapter for four years." The Florida chapter was reportedly "highly critical" of the Clorox deal. The Sierra Club told chapter leaders not to "seek public media coverage of this internal board decision," according to the Palm Beach Post. Some chapter leaders said "they fear punishment from the national organization" if they speak out.

CAFOs or "animal factories"
The Sierra club reports on the environmental hazards and corporate and government corruption surrounding "giant animal factories" or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO)s.


 * "Governments are spending millions of taxpayer dollars to bring a pollution nightmare into our neighborhoods," declared Ken Midkiff, coordinator of the Sierra Club's Clean Water Committee. "In state after state, while factory farms rake in the financial benefits, Americans are paying the environmental, health and social costs."


 * "That giant sucking sound is the factory-farm industry taking a hold of the government teat," said Kathryn Hohmann, Director of Sierra Club's Environmental Quality Program.

According to the Sierra Club, factory farms are breeding grounds for disease and pollution effecting air and water quality. According to an Iowa study cited by the group, nearby residents of factory farms complain of respiratory problems, headaches and other illnesses, similar to those of employees. Scientific and medical researchers have conducted a handful of comprehensive studies that examine the public health impacts of animal factories. They conclude that residents living near animal factories show symptoms of respiratory, physical and emotional illness significantly higher than control groups.

See also meat & dairy industry, sections 4 & 5.

"Ten Least Wanted" list
In 2002, Cargill, Smithfield Foods and Tyson Foods made the Sierra Club's "Ten Least Wanted" list.

Just weeks after the second-largest beef recall in history, the Sierra Club released a report on hundreds of criminal and civil violations of America's largest corporate factory farms. The Rap sheet documented convictions for animal cruelty, bribery, records destruction, fraud, worker endangerment and pollution.


 * "Despite repeated violations of environmental and public health laws, many of the companies highlighted in the Rap Sheets continue to receive millions of dollars every year from the School Lunch Program and other federal food assistance programs."

Targeted coal plant proposals
Active
 * American Lignite Energy - North Dakota
 * American Municipal Power Generating Station - Ohio
 * Belwood Coal-to-Liquids - Mississippi
 * Big Cajun II Unit 4 - Louisiana
 * Big Stone II - South Dakota
 * Bonanza Power Plant addition - Utah
 * Clean Coal Plant Project - New York
 * Cliffside Plant - North Carolina
 * Council Bluffs Energy Center Unit 4 - Iowa
 * Dallman Unit 4 - Illinois
 * Desert Rock - New Mexico
 * Dry Fork Station - Wyoming
 * Edwardsport Plant - Indiana
 * Franklin County Power Plant - Illinois
 * Gascoyne 500 Project - North Dakota
 * Hempstead - Arkansas
 * Highwood Generating Station - Montana
 * Huntley Generating Station - New York
 * Iatan 2 - Missouri
 * Karn/Weadock Generating Complex Expansion - Michigan
 * Little Gypsy Repowering - Louisiana
 * Longleaf - Georgia
 * Longview Plant - West Virginia
 * Lower Columbia Clean Energy Center - Oregon
 * Midland Power Plant - Michigan
 * Mountaineer - West Virginia
 * Oak Creek Units 1 & 2 - Wisconsin
 * Oak Grove Plant - Texas
 * Pee Dee Generating Facility - South Carolina
 * Port Comfort Repowering Project - Texas
 * Prairie State Energy Campus - Illinois
 * Sandow Unit 5 - Texas
 * Sandy Creek Plant - Texas
 * Sevier Plant - Utah
 * Smith Power Station Unit 1 - Kentucky
 * Southwest Power Station Unit 2 - Missouri
 * Spurlock Power Station Unit 4 - Kentucky
 * Taylorville Energy Center - Illinois
 * Toquop - Nevada
 * Trimble County Generating Station 2 - Kentucky
 * Twin Oaks Power Unit 3 - Texas
 * Two Elk Energy Park Unit 1 - Wyoming
 * Two Elk Energy Park Unit 2 - Wyoming
 * Wallula Energy Resource Center - Washington
 * Weston Unit 4 - Wisconsin
 * White Pine Energy Station - Nevada
 * Wise County Plant - Virginia
 * Wolverine Clean Energy Venture - Michigan

Cancelled
 * Elmwood Energy Center - Illinois
 * Ely Energy Center, Phase I - Nevada
 * FutureGen - Illinois
 * Glades - Florida
 * Holcomb Expansion - Kansas
 * Hunter 4 - Utah
 * Intermountain Power Project Unit 3 - Utah
 * Lima Energy - Ohio
 * LS Power Elk Run Energy Station - Iowa
 * Matanuska Power Plant - Alaska
 * Mesaba Energy Project - Minnesota
 * Pacific Mountain Energy Center - Washington
 * Taylor Energy Center - Florida
 * Thoroughbred Generating Station - Kentucky
 * Western Greenbrier Co-Production Demonstration Project - West Virginia

Targeted Institution Plants
The Medical Center Company (MCC), a non-profit district heating operation formed in 1932 to provide aggregated utility services to University Circle institutions in eastern Cleveland, OH, burns 40,000 tons of coal/year to heat the city's leading institutions. After operating its plant without a permit for 6 years, the Ohio EPA set a renewal process for their Title V air permit in Spring 2010. The Sierra Club urged MCC to stop burning coal, particularly since it is right next to a hospital, and asked for a public hearing on the permit renewal. Sierra Club then mobilized people in East Cleveland on the hearing, raising issues of environmental justice (see video). In August 2010, MCC chairman Bob Brown, who is also chairman of the corporation's board of directors, said that the company "was moving beyond coal" and is committed to replacing the plant, perhaps with a facility that burns natural gas and generates electrical power as well as steam heat.

Campus Coal Plants
Campuses Beyond Coal is a joint effort between the Sierra Student Coalition and the Sierra Club to move U.S. universities beyond coal to clean energy solutions, and aims to shut down or replace campus-based coal plants and coal-generated electricity.

Internal debates
In 2003/2004, there was an attempt to vote in a number of anti-immigration board members to form an anti-immigration platform. The argument in favor was that "the greater the population, the bigger threat to the environment." Groundswell Sierra charged that anti-immigration leaders were working with directors Ben Zuckerman, Doug LaFollette and Paul Watson. Both Zuckerman, (an astronomy professor at the Univerisity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)) and LaFollette are proponents of curbing immigration. However, while Sierra is a proponent of population control in general, it has remained officially neutral on immigration issues. (see Sierrans for U.S. Population Stablization)

Captain Paul Watson is the head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a marine environmental group. Watson and other animal rights supporters aligned themselves with anti-immigration advocates in hopes of forming a block to officially discourage hunting, fishing and raising animals for food. While Sierra is an opponent of CAFOs or factory farms, it still maintains a neutral policy on hunting, fishing and animal consumption in general.

Political views
The Big Book of Bush. Politics & Issues.

Funding
Sierra Club is funded in part by members of the Democracy Alliance.

Officers

 * Robbie Cox, President
 * Robin Mann, Vice President
 * Sanjay Ranchod, Secretary
 * Joni Bosh, Treasurer
 * Carl D. Pope 1992-present

Board of directors
(Director, Role, Term Expires)
 * Robbie Cox, President, 2010
 * Robin Mann, Vice President, 2009
 * Sanjay Ranchod, Secretary, 2010
 * Joni Bosh, Treasurer, 2008
 * Allison Chin, Fifth Officer, 2010
 * James Catlin, 2008
 * Jim Dougherty, 2008
 * Jennifer Ferenstein, 2008
 * Barbara Frank, 2008
 * David Karpf, 2010
 * Ellen Pillard, 2009
 * Lisa Renstrom, 2010
 * Rafael Reyes, 2009
 * Marilyn Wall, 2009
 * Bernie Zaleha, 2009

Former Executive Directors: 1952 to 1992

 * David R. Brower 1952-1969
 * J. Michael McCloskey 1969-1985
 * Douglas P. Wheeler 1985-1986
 * Michael L. Fischer 1987-1992

See also Sierra Club: Officers.

Contact
Sierra Club National Headquarters 85 Second Street, 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 Phone: 415-977-5500 Fax: 415-977-5799

Sierra Club Legislative Office 408 C St., N.E. Washington, DC 20002

Phone: 202-547-1141 Fax: 202-547-6009

Web address: http://www.sierraclub.org

Sourcewatch resources

 * Big Green
 * Capital Research Center
 * Citizen groups working on coal issues
 * Clean Air Act
 * Clean Water Act
 * Clorox
 * Conservatives target the Sierra Club
 * David E. Pesonen
 * Democracy Alliance
 * Duncan McDuffie - former president (1928-31)
 * Environmental organizations
 * Environmental Protection Agency
 * Progressive Donor Network
 * Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund
 * Sierra Club: John Muir Award
 * soft money
 * Sierra Club Books
 * EPA Coal Plant Settlements
 * Doug Scott - former associate executive director

External articles

 * Bernardo Issel, "Sierra Club Board Member Gets Money from Chevron and Freeport McMoran", CounterPunch, 1999. Funding for Anne Ehrlich.
 * Michael Donnelly, "The Sierra Club Greenwashes Al Gore: The Desecration of John Muir", Counterpunch, August 30, 2007.
 * Joann Hari, The wrong kind of green, "The Nation", March 22, 2010.

External resources

 * Grassroots scrapbook

Books & publications

 * Michael Cohen, The History of the Sierra Club, 1892-1970 (Sierra Club Books, 1988).
 * Susan Schrepfer, “Conflict in Preservation: The Sierra Club, Save-the-Redwoods League, and Redwood National Park,” Journal of Forest History, 24 (1) 1980.
 * Nicolas Rangel, Jr., "The Greening of Hate?: Rhetoric in Sierra Club's Internal Division on Immigration Neutrality", American Communication Journal, 2008.